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[sylvanaerie]

I adore Dorian.  I was hard pressed to choose between him and Blackwall--a character type I've been pining for in games ever since Keldorn broke my Bhaalspawn's heart--for my second Inquisitor.  Since I'm a heterosexual female, I prefer the straight romance options, but Dorian's pull is strong.  I really enjoy his character.  

 

Dorian will be my third Inquisitor's romance.  By then I'll have done most of the story options and can focus on those things I haven't seen yet.  My daughter did Iron Bull's romance.  Yes, he's a top but there's a reason he is, and he discusses it in the romance why he tops your Inquisitor.  And he becomes as committed (esp once you give him the dragon tooth) as any of the others, despite his hedonistic ways.

 

I can understand why Cullen wasn't included as an option for a gay romance because it wasn't in his characterization, but I'd love to see that type of sweet KISA romance for a s/s relationship.

 

While I prefer playing my own gender, the benefit for me to pick a male is I get to look at the handsome "Tyrone Power-faced Protagonist" I enjoy watching.  I could think of worst ways to spend 80+ hours of my time.

 

My only objection to Sera is, I can barely understand her half the time and she's mostly just confusing to me.  It took two playthroughs to notice why she was giggling about the 'no breeches' bit when she meets you--and even then I think I've missed something.  She's more like my Inquisitor's little sister, a friend who keeps her grounded and reminds her of what she's fighting for, not someone I'm interested in romancing.

[Ailith Tycane]

I'm sure everyone on these forums knows twice over how badly I wanted Cassandra to be a F/F romance option since I admittedly never shut up about it, and having played the game now, I can say with complete certainty that I still wish that was the case. I was hoping either Josephine or Sera would pleasantly surprise me, and my initial impressions of them would be proved false (like with Leliana in DAO) but unfortunately that was not the case. It would have been a wonderful change if Bioware made the more masculine female companion actually gay or bi, instead of this trend where they make seemingly butch women not only straight, but aggressively straight, like the idea of them being gay would somehow be "too stereotypical" (Nevermind the fact that butch looking women in real life very often ARE gay). It's like a woman with any hint of unfeminine traits either physically or in her personality can only be allowed to exist as long as she still exists within the realm of male sexuality, which extremely bothers me, and I hope it's something Bioware changes in the future.

 

Secondly, I would also like to point out that, again, the main female love interest (And the male one too for that matter) is exclusively straight...Just like Morrigan was straight, just like Ashley and Miranda from Mass Effect were straight. Seeing a trend here? They're all the first or close to the first companions you get in the game, they're all more plot specific than the gay love interests, and they tend to have more dialogue and main plot specific roles. Also the fact that in DAO and in DAI they, for some reason, added the option to casually just kick out both of the F/F specific love interests in regular dialogue. You can literally kick Sera out of the Inquisition at any moment just by talking to her, but you have no options like this for Cassandra, or Solas, or Blackwall, or even Dorian as far as I know, and that also bothers me immensely. 

 

I love the game overall, it works really well, I like the combat, but on the front of gay romances I don't give Bioware much credit aside from including them. Sorry if this is harsh, I understand Bioware is one of the ONLY gaming companies that even gives people the option to not only have gay romances, but to even just play as something that isn't a white male, I just think they can do better.

 

Or as empress Celene would say, I wish they had dared more. 

[leadintea]

Dorian's sexuality is not the only reason he isn't in Tevinter, so it's not entirely truthful to state that. His personal quest might be a slight cliche - bit it's a real one, and I'm pretty sure "my father tried to use blood magic to change me" isn't a story that's been told before. 

 

Also, this game does not make homosexuality a problem in Thedas. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, there's a codex entry that can be found (I think it's in the Emerald Graves somewhere) called "Sexuality in Thedas" which breaks down how people feel about same sex realtionships by region in Thedas. In Ferelden, no one cares about any kind of sexual relation as long as it's not in public (actual sex, not PDA), in Orlais, no one cares, and in Tevinter it's only a problem if you're nobility. It's seen as a problem elsewhere if you're a noble because the most important thing for nobles is to continue the family line, which makes sense as far as the world goes, but the rules are harsher in Tevinter probably due to the strict political nature of the magisterium.

 

The blood magic to change Dorian was very similar to stories where a gay person's family would put them in a straight camp to try and change them. Everything about Dorian's personal quest was a cliche and I just shook my head through the entirety of it and was severely disappointed to find out that this was the best they could do with him. That said, I actually found Krem much more interesting than I thought I would. I felt he was kinda shoehorned into the game for representation, but his story really was more heartfelt to me than Dorian's, and really made me appreciate Iron Bull a bit more than I did at the time.

[mikeymoonshine]

I liked them on the whole the characters were interesting and mostly well written. I certainly prefer them to the DA2 romances where the only interesting one was Isabela in my opinion. 

 

It would have been a wonderful change if Bioware made the more masculine female companion actually gay or bi, instead of this trend where they make seemingly butch women not only straight, but aggressively straight, like the idea of them being gay would somehow be "too stereotypical" (Nevermind the fact that butch looking women in real life very often ARE gay). It's like a woman with any hint of unfeminine traits either physically or in her personality can only be allowed to exist as long as she still exists within the realm of male sexuality, which extremely bothers me, and I hope it's something Bioware changes in the future.

 

I think this is just because writers try to write interesting non stereotypical characters. The "butch lesbian" stereotype exists as you say because a lot of lesbians are kinda butch but many aren't and not all butch women are lesbians. In some cases these things sort of end up becoming a stereotypes themselves, I think that's what has happened with this particular trope and it's not just bioware doing it. I don't think it's meant to say anything negative about female sexuality, I think it's just writers falling into the same traps as each other because they are all trying to be different. 

 

The blood magic to change Dorian was very similar to stories where a gay person's family would put them in a straight camp to try and change them. Everything about Dorian's personal quest was a cliche and I just shook my head through the entirety of it and was severely disappointed to find out that this was the best they could do with him. That said, I actually found Krem much more interesting than I thought I would. I felt he was kinda shoehorned into the game for representation, but his story really was more heartfelt to me than Dorian's, and really made me appreciate Iron Bull a bit more than I did at the time.

 

Yeah it was a quite cliche and it's a shame about that quest, the only thing that saved it for me was Ramon's brilliant voice acting, it made the scene more believable at least. I liked Krem a lot, plus the entire chargers plot line with bulls personal quest was quite powerful and one of the only actually tough decisions in the game. They didn't go over the top with Krem like they did with Dorian's personal quest. 

 

Now I want to find out how Maevaris is getting on what with being a trans Magister, make it happen Bioware! 

[rda]

For the record, I don't even know that Cassandra is butch. Sure, Cassandra isn't a girly girl, but given the constraints of her job (wear armor, be proficient in fighting, go out to distant reaches of the kingdom for months at a time) she isn't butch.

Sure, her hair is cut short, but that can easily be argued for convenience/hygiene (long hair isn't very practical if you're out and camping for weeks/months at a time). And even then, she has that braid thing looping around her head that is a nod to her femininity and obviously takes some time to do. And she wears nice, tasteful makeup.

Sure, she's not simpering and giggly, but as a member of one of the most elite organizations in Thedas (the Seekers) she isn't supposed to be. It would be bizarre if she was.

I guess I'm not seeing the "Cassandra is OBVIOUSLY butch" thing. She's not a girly girl but that's not butch.

[Ianamus]

To be honest, I felt that the same gender romance paths were mostly the weakest in the game.

 

Iron Bull's revolves around his and the Inquisitors dom-sub relationship in bed, which I really don't need to be the focal point. Sera's actual romance looks fine but the character, while well written, is very abrasive and can be extremely difficult to deal with. Dorian was a fun character and a good friend of my Inquisitor but his romance does nothing for me whatsoever, and they played up his sexuality too much for my liking, particularly in his personal quest. 

 

Meanwhile Cassandra's romance was pretty good, even if it feels like it comes to a very abrupt halt after the romance scene, and from what I've seen of Blackwalls his is pretty good too. Solas's and Cullen's look really good.

 

Josephine's is the only same gender romance that I really like. The others are were disappointing. 

 

Obviously this is just how I feel about them, I'm sure others enjoyed them. 

[Obsidian]

Dorian was my favorite companion and I really enjoyed the romance. Thanks Bioware for that!

 

Leliana was my favorite companion in DA:O. My initial intention was to romance Zevran but I ended up enjoying Leliana much more. 

In DA2 I did a female Hawke just to romance Isabela, my favorite character by far in this game (funny and free!).

 

I enjoy the companions overall for the series. I was planning to romance Bull in DAI but I didn't like the lack of options to turn him into a non-top, so not riding the bull.

 

I do plan to create a female Inquisitor to romance Josephine. I appreciated all the advisors.  

[Ailith Tycane]

For the record, I don't even know that Cassandra is butch. Sure, Cassandra isn't a girly girl, but given the constraints of her job (wear armor, be proficient in fighting, go out to distant reaches of the kingdom for months at a time) she isn't butch.

Sure, her hair is cut short, but that can easily be argued for convenience/hygiene (long hair isn't very practical if you're out and camping for weeks/months at a time). And even then, she has that braid thing looping around her head that is a nod to her femininity and obviously takes some time to do. And she wears nice, tasteful makeup.

Sure, she's not simpering and giggly, but as a member of one of the most elite organizations in Thedas (the Seekers) she isn't supposed to be. It would be bizarre if she was.

I guess I'm not seeing the "Cassandra is OBVIOUSLY butch" thing. She's not a girly girl but that's not butch.

 

You're falling into the trap a lot of people fall into though, which is that you are equating the term butch with a negative, an insult, which it isn't.

 

It's not your fault entirely, practically everyone sees the term butch as an insult, but that's because of the reasons I mentioned before. Butch became synonymous for ugly, undesirable, gross, etc, simply because a lot of lesbians happen to appear more masculine, and therefore were unattractive to straight men, thus, ugly...To men. Because what men find hot is all that matters right? (/sarcasm)

 

Cassandra definitely has feminine traits, but if we were weighing peoples stereotypical feminine and masculine traits on an imaginary scale, I think her masculine traits outweigh her feminine ones no contest. That doesn't mean she's ugly, that doesn't mean she's less of a woman, it just means shes butch, which is awesome.

 

And yes, I am well aware not all lesbians are masculine, but I wonder if anyone else knows this, since every F/F romance option I can think of in not just Bioware games, but games in general, have all been exceedingly feminine. It's like (again) the only way a lesbian relationship can be tolerated is if both women are physically attractive to men. I don't like that implication, and again, I am not opposed to feminine lesbians, quite the opposite, what does bother me though is that Bioware has a well used trend at this point where the women who could be considered masculine or butch either in character or physical appearance or both are always straight, always. There is no variation, and I would argue the same thing of the gay male romances. Dorian was funny, but he reminded me very much of Zevran in a lot of ways, which I thought was unfortunate for gay male players. 

[daveliam]

I would love to see a traditionally butch lesbian in a game.  The f/f options were:

 

Leliana - incredibly feminine

Merrill - feminine and childlike

Isabela - feminine and 'sexy'

Josephine - feminine and Disney-esque

Sera - soft-butch (at most and that's a stretch really)

 

Let's see truly butch gal in the games.  Those ladies exist, after all!

[TheJediSaint]

Sera's romance was funny and kinda hot.

[fizzypop]

I don't think Sera is a great lesbian romance. Kind of wish we had another one along with Jo. Jo is nice and all, but eh I feel like hers wasn't as well done as it could have been. I wish we could've had another non-companion romance or Vivi. Dorian is excellent with his bad self.

[fizzypop]

I would love to see a traditionally butch lesbian in a game.  The f/f options were:

 

Leliana - incredibly feminine

Merrill - feminine and childlike

Isabela - feminine and 'sexy'

Josephine - feminine and Disney-esque

Sera - soft-butch (at most and that's a stretch really)

 

Let's see truly butch gal in the games.  Those ladies exist, after all!

I know right? I'd love to see it. Or at least an androgynous woman.

[fizzypop]

Wow, I really like the look of the Elf Inquisitor you have for your avatar Fizzy.

Thank you! It took me awhile to make her exactly as I wanted her to be.